Sunshine needed in more ways than one

Sunday

Mar 16, 2014 at 12:01 AMMar 16, 2014 at 1:45 PM

For something known as Sunshine Week, the weather forecast is certainly gloomy — at least for the start of it anyway.

And perhaps that’s an apt metaphor for what Sunshine Week, which began Sunday, is really all about — the public’s access to government, its documents and meetings. In North Carolina, the outlook there couldn’t be more gloomy as well.

It’s been bitterly disappointing to witness the ramped up secrecy when it comes to government operations, not only in Washington but right here in North Carolina. In fact, the latter is even more troubling. Certainly voters didn’t select current political leaders knowing that they would then take away what is rightfully theirs.

Yes as we have noted before, North Carolina residents shouldn’t have to pay for what belongs to them, and all records generated by and for government belong to them. Yet Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration has seen fit to assert that the state can charge taxpayers for any request that takes more than half an hour to fulfill, and some towns jumped on the bandwagon even before that.

The state Attorney General’s Office is trying to reason with the town of Middlesex over its $34-an-hour public records fee, imposed if the search takes longer than half an hour. Is that half an hour including a clerk’s coffee break and other duties? Not that it matters.

But now that there’s state policy to charge up to $54 an hour for public records, this practice will likely spread even further. Government officials have a tendency to treat public records requests as nuisances that get in the way of governing. But our system of laws requires that the public be part of the process, and the only way that can happen is to provide free and open access to records generated on the public’s behalf.

Those records belong to you, the people. You’ve already paid for them through your taxes, and neither state nor local governments should be permitted to profit from a rightful request for information collected on your behalf.

One resident of Middlesex, in Nash County, paid $415 to obtain copies of emails by the town’s mayor . That’s absurd.

The state’s Public Records law has historically been interpreted to prohibit governments from charging for staffers’ time. After all, the public is paying for that time. What has been permitted is a token charge covering the actual cost of materials — the paper it’s printed on or the computer disk, if the person requesting the information does not provide one.

Hefty charges for obtaining public information that should be readily available — and the mayor’s emails are among the types of things that are standard — discourage people from asking. If that is not the explicit intent, it certainly has that effect. The Wilson Times reported that although one resident agreed to pay the steep fees, two others canceled their requests because the costs were prohibitive.

This is Sunshine Week, an annual observation by advocates of open government. It celebrates that uniquely American spirit that sees the people as the government, as opposed to subjects of the government. It is a right, not a privilege, for the public to be able to examine the documents and other records on which their elected officials — their public servants — base the decisions made on the people’s behalf.

It is a shame the people have to keep demanding something that already is written into law.

Parts of this editorial appeared in other Halifax Media Group newspapers.